Workbenches

Workbench Resources – Design, Building & Use

Here you’ll find all of our post about workbenches. There’s details about traditional bench design and vices, along with other alternate methods for holding your work. Whether you’re building your woodworking workbench from scratch, or looking to make better use of an existing bench, you’re in the right place.

If you're going to build yourself a chest of drawers, what wood would you build it out of?You'd build it out of whatever you fancy building it out of.What you like, what's to hand, what's cheapest. Who, bloody cares?It's the same for a workbench.Obviously, I can't pass that off as … [Read more...]

When I started building workbenches, I pushed my way of working on to my customers.I wasn't aware I was doing this. But my cave's a small place, and I forget there's other people out there.Every workbench went out complete with sliding board jack, large planing stop, a pair of bench … [Read more...]

Can't be Bothered to Read? Click Play: https://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Nice-Rack.mp3Without a reliable way to hold your work for woodworking we'll quickly become frustrated. Whilst I'm a firm believer that a lot can be achieved with an old nail stuck in to your … [Read more...]

Audio File (Trial). Can't Be Bothered To Read? Click Play.https://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/The-Planked-Top.mp3The Planked Top. What, How Why? ..who?Since first showing photos of our English workbench, I've had almost as many questions about this workbench … [Read more...]

A planing sleeve is a work holding method for things such as assembled drawers and open carcases, so you can plane or work on the outside faces.These are enormously handy when the carcase is too big for your vice, and knocking one up is as easy as fixing a couple of battens to your bench top, … [Read more...]

Today I wanted to share another work holding method that's as simple as it is effective (the best ones always are) and is suited only to those who've broken the fear of scathing their bench. 'The Bench Knife' is an old method certainly used for holding lengths at the sticking board, and it's a … [Read more...]

For a simple woodworker when it comes to a problem in life the best bet is to hit hard with a hammer. It's an effective if not delicate approach and once you get in to the mind set there's little that can't be solved.If you find you're spending a lot of time at your workbench stood head … [Read more...]

In the new year I'll be building a workbench. That's not unusual except that this particular workbench will be forming part of a lengthy chapter within our book. 'The French Bench' (not the Roubo) is where the design will be based and I've come to a bit of a head scratcher at the vice hardware. Why … [Read more...]

The first time we took our benches to see the public I was a bag of nerves. We took along a huge fancy Roubo type thing, but it was the other, simple bench we took that was my favourite. I hoped to focus on the idea that a good bench could be simple so the tail vice was absent, I never use tail … [Read more...]

When it comes to workbench design there's a rule to suit us all. Keep it simple, make it strong. Give any woodworker a French bench, an English bench, a trestle and a door fitted out with original Victorian handle bench...As long as they're strong, they all work. The same applies to vices. A … [Read more...]